Sherman’s Carolina campaigns

On January 10, 1865, with Tennessee and Georgia now securely in Federal hands, Sherman’s 60,000-man force began to march northward into the Carolinas. It was only lightly opposed by much smaller Confederate forces. Sherman’s men blamed South Carolina for bringing on the war and sought to punish them for their actions. What had happened in Georgia paled in comparison with the devastation the Yankees wrought in South Carolina. Once again, civilians were not killed, but the Union troops did everything they could to demoralize the population and undermine their support for the war. Sherman captured Columbia, South Carolina, on February 17 and compelled the Confederates to evacuate Charleston (including Fort Sumter). When Lee was finally named Confederate general in chief, he promptly reinstated Johnston as commander of the small forces striving to oppose the Federal advance. Nonetheless, Sherman pushed on into North Carolina, capturing Fayetteville on March 11 and, after an initial setback, repulsing the counterattacking Johnston at Bentonville on March 19–20. Goldsboro fell to the Federals on March 23 and Raleigh on April 13. Finally, perceiving that he no longer had any reasonable chance of containing the relentless Federal advance, Johnston surrendered to Sherman at the Bennett House near Durham Station on April 18. When Sherman’s generous terms proved unacceptable to Secretary of War Stanton (Lincoln had been assassinated on April 14), the former submitted new terms that Johnston signed on April 26.

The main area of the eastern campaigns, 1861–65.

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The final land operations

Grant and Meade were continuing their siege of Petersburg and Richmond early in 1865. For months the Federals had been lengthening their left (southern) flank while operating against several important railroads supplying the two Confederate cities. This stretched Lee’s dwindling forces very thin. The Southern leader briefly threatened to break the siege when he attacked and captured Fort Stedman on March 25. But an immediate Federal counterattack regained the strongpoint, and Lee, when his lines were subsequently pierced, evacuated both Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2–3.

An 88-mile (142-km) pursuit west-southwestward along the Appomattox River in Virginia ensued, with Grant and Meade straining every nerve to bring Lee to bay. The Confederates were detained at Amelia Court House, awaiting delayed food supplies, and were badly cut up at Five Forks and Sayler’s Creek, with their only avenue of escape now cut off by Sheridan and George A. Custer. When Lee’s final attempt to break out failed, he surrendered the remnants of his Army of Northern Virginia at the McLean house at Appomattox Court House on April 9. The lamp of magnanimity was reflected in Grant’s unselfish terms.

On the periphery of the Confederacy, 43,000 gray-clad soldiers in Louisiana under Smith surrendered to Canby on May 26. The port of Galveston, Texas, yielded to the Federals on June 2, and the greatest war on American soil was over.

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In the 1860s the northern and southern parts of the United States fought the American Civil War. The war started after 11 Southern states separated themselves from the United States and formed their own government. Their army fought the forces of the U.S. government. The Civil War threatened to break up the United States. It is also called the War Between the States.

At 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, Confederate artillery in Charleston, South Carolina, opened fire on Fort Sumter, which was held by the United States Army. The bombardment set off a savage four-year war between two great geographic sections of the United States. One section was the North-23 Northern and Western states that supported the federal government. The other section was the South-11 Southern states that had seceded (withdrawn) from the Union and formed an independent government called the Confederate States of America. The struggle between these two combatants is generally known as the American Civil War, though it is also referred to as the War Between the States or the War of the Rebellion.